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San
Antonio Area Freeway System
Interstate 10 West (Robert F. McDermott
Freeway) |
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This page last updated February 12, 2023 |
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This page covers Interstate 10 northwest of
downtown San Antonio from I-35 to Ralph Fair Rd. Two miles of
I-10 is concurrent (multiplexed) with I-35 south of this segment; see
the I-35 South
page for details. Interstate 10 continues east of downtown;
see the I-10 East
page for more info.
Length: 16 miles
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On
this page
Overview
This
segment of I-10
serves the northwest corridor, one of the fastest growing areas of the
city. A
tremendous amount of the region's suburban office space is located in
this
corridor as are the headquarters for several large companies. The
corridor also serves the
bustling and
continually-growing South Texas Medical Center district; Wonderland of
the
Americas mall (formerly known as Crossroads mall); the University of
Texas at San
Antonio's
(UTSA) main and downtown campuses; Six Flags Fiesta Texas; Joint Base
San Antonio Camp Bullis and Camp Stanley; and The Rim,
La Cantera, Landmark, Colonnade,
Huebner Oaks, and Fiesta Trails retail centers and mixed-use
developments. One suburban city, Balcones Heights,
also lies within
the corridor as does the unincorporated Leon Springs area. I-10
continues
northward to the booming outlying areas of Fair Oaks Ranch, Boerne, and
Kendall
County. Inside Loop 410, the route is lined with light
industrial and residential
areas. Heavy commercial development dominates the landscape
between Loop 410 and
La Cantera Blvd., with moderate and growing commercial and residential
development north of there all the way to Boerne.
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While it
is signed as east/west, this segment actually runs mostly north/south.
To avoid confusion, many locals give directions as "inbound" or
"outbound" (from downtown) instead; I use that convention here. |
Roadway details
LANES |
- 10 lanes double-decked (6 lanes
on the upper levels; 4 lanes on the lower level) from I-35/Frio St. to
Fulton Ave.
- 10 lanes from Fulton Ave. to
Loop 410
with a short 8 lane section through the Loop 410 interchange.
- 11
lanes (5 inbound, 6 outbound) from Loop 410 to Wurzbach Rd.
- 8
lanes
from Wurzbach Rd. to Huebner Rd.
- 9 lanes
(5 inbound, 4 outbound) from Huebner Rd. to Loop
1604.
- 6 lanes from Loop 1604 to Ralph
Fair Rd.
- 2 HOV lanes (one each
direction) from La Cantera Blvd.
to
Ralph Fair Rd.
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ACCESS ROADS |
- Continuous access roads from I-35 to Frio St.
- No continuous access roads from Frio St. to
Woodlawn Ave.,
except on the inbound side between Woodlawn Ave. and Culebra Ave.
- Continuous access roads along remainder of route
north of Woodlawn Ave.
- Westbound
access road splits in Leon Springs. The west leg continues along the
freeway and ends at Boerne Stage Rd. The east leg passes through Leon
Springs and then continues northward to Ralph Fair Rd.
- Access road intersection bypass at Medical Dr.
(both directions).
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EXITS |
Click here
for a list of I-10 West exits. |
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SPEED LIMITS |
- 60
mph from I-35 to Fulton St.
- 65 mph from Fulton to La Cantera
Blvd.
- 70 mph from La Cantera Blvd. to
Ralph
Fair Rd.
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SPECIAL FEATURES &
NOTES |
- US 87 concurrent (multiplexed)
along entire route.
- Double-decked from Frio St. to
Hildebrand Ave.
- TransGuide coverage from I-35 to
Camp Bullis Rd.
- VIA
Metropolitan Transit
Park & Ride
locations:
- Crossroads:
Crossroads Blvd.
- University:
Loop 1604 (under interchange)
- Left
exit to I-35 northbound.
- Special double-height bridge rail barrier
on ramp to I-35 northbound.
- Unusual yield sign arrangement
at Loop 1604 interchange; click here
for more information.
- Two waterways
run longitudinally below the freeway:
- Martinez Creek between West Ave and Fresno Ave.
- San Pedro Creek between Frio St. and I-35
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TRAFFIC |
Heavy to extremely heavy along entire route.
Regular morning and afternoon peak-period
congestion occurs on the
approaches to Loop
410 and I-35.

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AVERAGE
ANNUAL DAILY TRAFFIC |
LOCATION |
2001 |
2011 |
2016 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
'11-'21
% CHG |
W of Frio St. | 159,000 | 161,000 | 186,834 | 187,306 | 159,210 | 178,837 | +11.08% |
S of Crossroads Blvd. | 157,000 | 173,000 | 205,174 | 206,072 | 176,291 | 219,228 | +26.72% |
N of Callaghan Rd. | 171,000 | 200,000 | 240,483 | 241,130 | 211,683 | 237,094 | +18.55% |
N of Huebner Rd. | 138,000 | 172,000 | 182,092 | 182,384 | 156,823 | 183,673 | +6.79% |
N of DeZavala Rd. | 163,000 | 207,000 | 184,375 | 199,029 | 172,205 | 202,353 | -2.24% |
N of UTSA Blvd. | 112,000 | 156,000 | 153,716 | 156,092 | 135,523 | 183,419 | +17.58% |
N of Loop 1604W | 69,000 | 106,000 | 116,529 | 121,393 | 103,442 | 150,152 | +41.65% |
N of Dominion Dr. | 58,000 | 74,000 | 87,507 | 98,299 | 89,018 | 131,740 | +78.03% |
N of FM 3351 | 42,000 | 52,000 | 64,049 | 80,745 | 69,073 | 81,446 | +56.63% |
Media
gallery
Click
here
for photos and video of this
freeway.
Construction projects
- La Cantera Blvd. to Ralph Fair
Rd.:
Widen freeway to six general purpose lanes plus two HOV lanes. Click here for details
on this project.
Click
here to
view information for all projects in this
corridor.
Future plans
TxDOT
plans to add one general purpose lane and one HOV lane in each
direction from Ralph Fair Rd. to Boerne. There
is currently no funding or timeline for that
expansion.
A
fully-directional
"stack" interchange was proposed at Loop 1604 as part of the Loop 1604 managed lanes project.
It will now be built as part of the Loop 1604 North expansion project.
History
The
section from Fredericksburg Rd. at Woodlawn Ave. to Culebra Ave. was
San Antonio's first expressway.
Most
of the route from just north of Huebner Rd. to Leon Springs was part
of the original route of US 87 and
its predecessors US 290, US 385, SH 9, and SH 27. The short section of
Old Fredericksburg Rd. at Loop 1604 was bypassed by the current route
in 1934 as
part of the
Arneson Plan to improve state highways in Bexar County. The section of
I-10 today north of Leon Springs was also built in 1934 as part of the
Arneson Plan; prior to that, the route followed Boerne Stage Rd.
The first freeway sections to be
built were simply called "US 87 Expressway". It was briefly
called
the
"North Expressway" before being named the "Northwest Expressway" when
planning began for the US 281 "North Expressway". The
designation as I-10 was
authorized on October 1, 1959. The route was renamed as "McDermott
Freeway" ca. 1995
for Robert F.
McDermott, the former CEO of the USAA financial services corporation
whose
headquarters are located adjacent to the freeway south of
Huebner Rd.
Late 1930s: The
section from Woodlawn Ave. to downtown was
included as part
of the original
three-legged expressway plan for San Antonio designed to provide bypass
routes
around downtown for through traffic on the various US and state
highways. The
United States' entrance into World War II delayed these plans until
after the war.
- July
8,
1949: The
section from Fredericksburg Rd. at Woodlawn Ave. to Culebra Ave. opened
without fanfare. This was the first expressway in San Antonio and
appears to be the second in Texas, coming less than a year after the
Gulf Freeway opened in Houston and a month before the opening of
Central Expressway in Dallas.
- November
28, 1949: The
section from Culebra Ave. to Frio
St. opened with the official ribbon-cutting for the entire Woodlawn
Ave. to
Frio St. section.
- November
1950: The
segment from Frio St. to Martin St. was completed.
- June 1955: Alignment
finalized
for the
routing of the section from Woodlawn Ave.
to De Zavala Rd. A previous proposal in 1953 had I-10 further
east crossing Loop 410 at Vance-Jackson Rd., and a plan from around
1951
showed it paralleling Fredericksburg Rd. roughly 2/3rd of a mile to the
east.
- 1957:
"Downtown Y"
interchange completed.
- April
1960: The
section from Loop 410 to Fredericksburg Rd.
north of Huebner Rd. was completed including the interchange at Loop
410.
- October
1960: The segment from Woodlawn Ave. to Fresno Dr. opened.
- November
1961: The section from Fresno Dr. to Loop 410 was
completed.
- 1966:
The section from Dominion Dr. to Boerne opened.
- 1967:
The ramps connecting I-35 North to and from I-10 West in the "Downtown
Y"
interchange were completed. Prior to this, there were only direct
connections between I-35 South and I-10 West. Traffic headed to and
from I-35 North had to exit and use the access roads
- 1968: The existing
segment of US 81 from Fredericksburg Rd. near Huebner to Dominion Dr.
was upgraded to a freeway.
- 1982:
First phase of Loop 1604 interchange completed.
- 1983-1994:
Reconstruction and double-decking from I-35 to Hildebrand Ave.
- 1987:
Loop 1604 interchange completed.
- 1991:
The segment from Loop 1604
to Camp Bullis Rd. widened from four to six lanes.
- 1992:
The
music group REM filmed the video for their song "Everybody
Hurts" on the lower level at Woodlawn Ave. Producers had
originally
wanted to use US 281 North at Loop 1604, but decided it looked too wide
in camera shots.
- 1993:
The section from
Loop 1604 south
to Fredericksburg Rd. (near Huebner) widened from four to six lanes.
- 1995:
TransGuide
coverage added to the section south
of Hildebrand Ave. as part of the original TransGuide project.
- 1996:
The
segment from Fredericksburg Rd. south to Wurzbach Rd. was expanded from
four
to eight lanes.
- 1998:
The section from Wurzbach Rd. to Callaghan Rd. was
widened from four to eight and 10 lanes.
- 1999:
TransGuide coverage added from Hildebrand Ave. to Camp Bullis Rd.
- 2000-2009: Loop 410
interchange reconstructed.
- 2008:
The section
from Crossroads
Blvd. to Fulton Ave. was widened from six to 10 lanes.
- 2009:
Dominion Dr. overpass completed and access roads between Camp Bullis
Rd. and Dominion Dr. converted to one-way.
- 2011:
Reconstruction from Camp
Bullis Rd. to Dominion Dr. to raise and lengthen the Camp Bullis
overpass and improve drainage was
completed.
- 2016:
The section from Ramsgate Dr. to Loop 1604 was
widened from six to eight lanes.
- 2017:
Conversion of access roads to one-way and other improvements from
Dominion Dr. to Leon Springs completed.
- 2020: The section
from La Cantera Blvd. to Ralph Fair Rd. widened to six lanes plus two
HOV lanes.

I-10
at Woodlawn Ave. looking north in 1949
The freeway ended here and curved up to
Fredericksburg Rd.
(Photo
courtesy of TxDOT)

I-10 at Frio St. looking
southeast in
1950
(Photo courtesy of TxDOT)

Snippet of 1953 plan for routing
of US 87 (I-10) in the vicinity Loop 13 (Loop 410)
Note the
location of the planned US 87/Loop 13 interchange between Vance-Jackson
Rd. and Jackson-Keller Rd.
(Document courtesy of TxDOT)
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